Wachowski’s Cloud Atlas touches down in December

David Konow, 22nd May 2012

You probably remember when The Matrix stole Episode One’s thunder in the summer of 1999.

Everyone was waiting with bated breath for the first new Star Wars movie since 1983’s Return of the Jedi, but when Episode One turned out to be a big disappointment, fans jumped over to the side of the Wachowski Brothers, who reinvented sci-fi in a way that was nearly as fresh and innovative as Star Wars was in 1977.

After that, the Wachowskis followed up with their own bloated, pretentious sequels, and just like Lucas, they seemed out of fresh ideas in a hurry.

Yet as we’ve reported here on TG, the Wachowskis may be trying to come back strong with their next movie, Cloud Atlas, which they made in collaboration with Tom Tykwer, who gave us Run Lola Run.

As reported by Cinema Blend and Thompson on Hollywood, the film screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and it runs two hours and forty-four minutes. The site FirstShowing.net also reports the version that’s being screened is almost completed, including special effects.

Cloud Atlas is at Cannes looking for foreign buyers, but it will roll out in the States courtesy of Warner Brothers on December 6, a date that Cinema Blend reports has no other big movies coming out that week. (The Hobbit hits theaters a week later).

Cloud Atlas is based on a 2004 novel, and features six interchanging stories that take place in different periods of history, from all the way back to the 19th century, all the way up to the collapse of society in the future. One thing is for certain - you can’t say Wachiowski and Tykwer aren’t ambitious. The film also boasts an all star cast featuring Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Keith David and Jim Broadbent.